No UI clutter on your screen, instant weapon selection from a large variety of weapons,
But the controller looks uncomfortable as hell, most will probably prefer 360/ps3 pads over quick weapon selection
It looks like an iPad with buttons - I wouldn't call an iPad uncomfortable. The fact that it's a second screen that allows the main screen to be freed up and commands issued with a touch is a definite boon.
more powerful processing power than the current console lineup
Current consoles will be 7 years old so ofcourse it should be more powerful, will be interesting to compared it to the new consoles that will arrive a year or so later
But it's a year or so later we're talking about and the "hardcore" community - the community that wants the best right now. We also have no idea what price scheme we're looking at and Nintendo is the only console manufacturer, at this time, that can afford to take a hit on the console prices knowing that they'll make it up - ten fold - by their independent games like Mario. Nintendo can afford to sell the Wii U for only 400 bucks or so - even if it costs 500 to manufacture and ship - because Mario U will have close to 0 production cost (relatively speaking) and sell for 60 bucks like hotcakes.
a renewed agreement with EA games
Anyone know for how long ? EA could dump Nintendo when that agreement is over if the Wii U is inferior to the new stuff
The console will sell and a lot of people will probably like it but I still cant see a way they will compete in the future
No agreement is forever but as long as Nintendo keeps the Wii U as the "adult" console in its lineup they will have the adult market - at least a piece of it - and EA won't pass up on potential customers.
Nintendo will compete in the future likely with the same gameplan they've been using since the Wii launched - innovation. You make the new toy shiny and with a few spiffy functions that nobody has seen before and people will buy it. Throw in the name Nintendo and be the only - the
only - manufacturer with a steady supply of quality family-friendly games and you've got yourself a winner.
TMR, it is a new console and a new controller. Does it look strikingly similar? Sure. Is its name gay? A tad. However, the current Wii is NOT capable of HD video at all. There's a reason the U is a beefed up looking Wii - that's because it IS a beefed up version. It has to have a new processor at a minimum and whatever graphics chip(s) console companies use.
Yeah, the original Xbox 360 didn't have HDMI to display in 1080p either. It also changed the size of the chips on the motherboard... but they didn't say "it's a brand new console!"
It's not a new console because they said absolutely nothing about the system itself. They didn't even talk about it or WHY it was more powerful. All the games will work on it still, but does this mean there will be no more Wii games from developers or will all future WiiU games also work on a regular Wii? If so, IT'S NOT A NEW CONSOLE. The DS had 4 different models, but the 3DS actually added better hardware and the 3D mode to make it a new handheld console. The WiiU (from all the information we know so for) just adds the freakin controller.
Now of the flip side, let's say that it's a new console with new hardware. Great! Will it still support Gamecube controllers? Or will people have to buy multiple WiiU controllers if they don't like the Wiimotes? Will those third party developers really take the WiiU seriously and develop games for it? OR will they think that it's still just easier to multiplatform with the 360 and PS3? I personally like one game for the Wii and that's Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and using a Wiimote with that is fucked up. I would much rather have the Gamecube controller or the new controller (yet I wouldn't buy more than one of those because of the heavy price it will likely carry).
Either way, it's a lose/lose in my book.
When the Wii came out they never really talked about the system - Nintendo is portraying the "coolest" feature of their new toy. Once again, that's the one thing you actually touch - the controller. You're talking semantics when you talk about "oh it's just got a new processor and a new video card, that doesn't make it a new console".
What's the difference between the PS2 and the PS3? That's all they updated and gave it a slight cosmetic change. There's no difference there. It's a new console because it's new hardware and a new control system. I don't see how that's *not* a new console.
Being backwards compatible is not the same as forward compatible - I don't know any console that's "forward compatible" at all and I wouldn't expect games made for the Wii U to work on the Wii - especially those with HD graphics, it's simply impossible. There are still games produced for both the PS2 and the PS3 simultaneously and I expect the same will happen with the Wii and Wii U. As far as the controllers go, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a dock for Gamecube controllers like they do on the Wii right now but I also wouldn't be surprised if they decided to let the 10+ year old system finally die.
